Hong Kong protesters delay session on China extradition bill

The Washington Post

Tuesday

Jun 11, 2019 at 10:34 PMJun 11, 2019 at 11:13 PM

Protesters storm Hong Kong's streets, causing legislature to balk

HONG KONG - Tens of thousands of demonstrators stormed key city roads at rush hour Wednesday morning after days of heightened tensions over the government's plan to push forward a bill that would allow extraditions to China, occupying Hong Kong's main arteries for the second time in five years in defiance of Beijing's tightening control.

The protesters, many young people dressed in black, started surrounding the building that houses Hong Kong's main government offices, the Legislative Council, late Tuesday night. Some pitched tents in a nearby park and on sidewalks, spending the night despite sporadic rain showers. The government has refused to scrap the extradition bill even after an enormous protest over the weekend, which organizers said brought over a million people to the streets.

Just as lawmakers were scheduled to hold a second reading of the bill at 11 a.m., the president of the legislature announced the reading would be changed "to a later time," an apparent response to the demonstrations. A final vote on the measure is expected by June 20.

Earlier that morning, when workers would typically be heading into towering office buildings that define the city's skyline, thousands of demonstrators had streamed into major roads near the Legislative Council complex. The swelling group removed metal barricades set up by police to keep them from the government buildings, commandeering them to block key intersections and an expressway onramp. Other barricades were used as makeshift ladders to assist people climbing over large concrete road dividers.

One female demonstrator, who declined to give her name, said the government's failure to accept protesters' calls for the bill to be dropped meant that protesters need to escalate their actions.

"We reject the law," she said. "We have a process that involved many people and the government did not listen to us. We need to do more than just standing here and shouting some slogans."

At nearby pharmacies and convenience stores, demonstrators bought boxes of surgical masks to distribute so those pouring into the protest site could cover their faces. Some demonstrators had even come prepared with umbrellas, harking back to the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests in which young demonstrators had to shield themselves against police tear gas.

Nearby, dozens of police officers in riot gear stood watching the scene unfold. Police clashed with a small group of protesters early Monday morning around the Legislative Council offices before pursuing them on an hours-long chase through the city.

Hong Kong, a crucial global financial hub, was handed back to China in 1997 after more than a century of British colonial rule under the promise that the territory remain politically independent, able to enact its own laws, keep its judicial and immigration system and its economic framework.

But the territory's autonomy has been eroding at a hastening pace for years, and critics say the extradition measure could be the final nail in the coffin: the effective end of the "one country, two systems" framework, by extending mainland law into Hong Kong. The extradition bill will allow fugitives to be repatriated to countries that Hong Kong does not have an extradition agreement with, including China.

Hong Kong's chief executive, Carrie Lam, issued a warning to protesters Tuesday to avoid taking any "radical actions." Minor tweaks to the bill she has offered up have failed to placate its numerous critics and Lam has vowed to press ahead with the legislation despite calls for her to resign. Lam has said that Beijing played no role in creating the legislation.

Despite that warning, hundreds of small businesses closed Wednesday and labor unions called strikes in a defiant show of opposition. Conrad Wu was one of the first business owners to announce that he would be shutting down. The owner of Call4Van, a moving van hailing service with around 300 drivers, Wu said he was frustrated with the government's insistence on pushing ahead with the bill after the march Sunday.

"The response we received was 'I don't give a damn,' " he said.

Wu expressed the widely held fear that the passing of the bill would undermine the "one country, two systems" framework, and put an end to any degree of political autonomy in Hong Kong.

"I truly believe we need to do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening," he said.

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